FOOTLAUNCHFebruary
VR… Virtual Realestate?
The club’s AGM
is due to be held this month. It is also
the start of more reliable thermals and all that associated rough stuff, so be
careful!
Big news within the
Club is John Bevan and Nick Collins’ new Atos VRs. They really are sailplanes
with the fuselage removed. I look forward to putting many an epic tale of life
with a VR into Footlaunch, John and Nick.
I feel I must
apologise for the flippant and occasionally cheeky approach I have to producing
this newsletter but it is the only way I know how to do it (and I enjoy the
giggle once I make a start!). Anyhow, if you don’t like it you can vote for
some other poor bugger at the AGM!
Thanks again to the
ever-reliable TC for the input towards this Footlaunch.
Safe flying, Richard.
Next club meeting; on Wed 8th March at The Pheasant, Welland… It’s the AGM so do come along!
SAFETY MATTERS and other stuffDeath is just nature's way of telling you that the laws of physics are indisputable
Safety Officers Bit
It’s nearly spring, soon thermals will be booming!
Top Tip #1 – Don’t crash, it’s painful.
Top Tip #2 – Fed
up of tripping over your speedbar? Fit a couple of ‘toggles’ on the lines
behind the lowest pulleys. The ‘toggles’ need to be a loose sliding fit so they
just hold the line and bar retracted but slide along when you use it. On the
ground it’s easier to pull the lines back and slide the toggles to hold it
rather than fiddling under your seat looking for the velcro. The toggles found
on detergent tablet string bags are perfect – pinch a couple when your missus
isn’t looking and say mice must have eaten them.
Site news
CARROCK FELL (Northern Lake District area) will
be SATURDAY ONLY flying from 1st APRIL to 1st JULY inclusive.
Please see the attached information regarding
this site.
FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY HAVE
THE POTENTIAL TO LAND THE OFFENDER IN COURT AND TO LOSE ACCESS TO THE SITE FOR
GOOD!!
Please read closley the attached article that
has been kindly forwarded to us via the RSPB and the Lake District National
Park Authority (LDNPA).
When reading this article please NOTE THE
FOLLOWING:1. Our flying activities
are being restricted at CARROCK (1st April to 1st July) due to the influence
that the RSPB and the LDNPA have over this site and the importance that they
place on protecting the nesting perigrines.
'The law states that it is an offence to
'intentionally' or 'recklessly' disturb a Schedule 1 bird 'at, on or near' the
nest. It is also an offence to recklessly or intentionally disturb 'dependent'
fledged young. These 'fledglings' are young birds that have just moved away
from the nest but are still dependent to some extent on their parents for food
and protection'.
2. The Saturday only flying restriction at
CARROCK may be lifted earlier under certain circumstances and if this happens
then PILOTS will be notified as soon as possible.
3. At the moment restrictions are applicable to
CARROCK but, in the future, unless we take care to avoid doing what the RSPB
says upsets the birds then more restrictions at other sites could easily
follow. On our heads be it if we break the law!
4. In summary - for CARROCK FELL - flying must
be restricted, in the first instance, to Saturdays only from the period 1st
April to 1st July and, on these days, there is to be NO FLYING ABOVE or AROUND
the crags.
PLEASE USE THE CSC 'ONLINE' SITES GUIDE FOR
INFORMATION (www.cumbriasoaringclub.co.uk)
Many thanks,
Simon Raven (CSC Contact)
Dear Doreen,
Seems the postman isn’t the
only one with a bulging sack this month. One of the letters from our
correspondents mentions this very thing. Read on and learn. Ask
her anything – yes anything!
Dear Doreen,
I’m having problems with my bulging sac – it’s close to
dragging on the ground and I have difficulty walking. I notice all my PG mates
have the same trouble, but the HG pilots all have much smaller sacs. Are they
less manly or do you just need more balls to fly a PG?
Yours,
Buster Gonad
Dear Buster. I’m very
sorry to hear about your unfeasibly large testicles. Unfortunately there is no
certain cure for this but recent trials that involved attaching walkman/mp3
headphones to the affected area and playing James Blunt through them have shown
a marked shrivelling and general life enhancement for 85% of the trial group
(the other 15% were women as required by European Equal Opportunities laws).
You may want to try this for yourself but on no account should you attach
the device, if playing James Blunt, to your ears either before or after the
treatment as this will almost certainly lead to premature brain ossification.
I think you’d find
(were you brave enough – I know I am) that most hang glider pilots over 40 have
in fact been castrated. This is not through choice or indeed any overriding
need but rather due to the plethora of poor harness designs during the 70s and
80s.
I hope this helps, Doreen.
Dear Doreen,
Have you ever been driving
somewhere and suddenly find yourself at your destination with no recollection
of having driven a familiar route? Lately I often have a similar experience
when I go flying. I find myself removing my helmet in the landing field and I
can’t even remember the landing, never mind the flight! Should I be worried?
Sincerely
Ernest Bottlebank
Dear Earnest, let me guess. Are you a hang glider pilot? I’ll bet my
last dollar you are!
This is what you need to do: As you stand in the landing field, look
around for a hang glider. Do you see one? You probably won’t find one. In which
case don’t worry. If there is a hang glider in the field, go and ask
someone if it is yours. They will most likely tell you no, it is theirs and
that they’d like you to ‘go away’. In which
case, don’t take offence; this is still what you need to be hearing so don’t
worry. If however it does turn out to be yours and it has been recently flown
(the uprights will still be warm and may be broken. Also, look for fresh saliva
on the bottom bar) then, yes, you should be worried.
I hope this helps,
Doreen.
Historical photos
This much-loved slot is back with a real corker.
Though it’s a tatty magazine cutting rather than a photo per se it is,
historically, very interesting so I hope you forgive the quality. Although we
think of the rigid wing hang glider as a machine of our time, similar gliders
have been around since the late 60s, as evidenced by this advert from the April
1969 copy of the Woman’s Realm, unearthed when yet another local dentist
had a waiting room clearout after going private. Mind you, one thing that has
changed over the years (beside those bloody awful fashions) is the male models
used in the shot – you’d never see such a couple of oldies doing a modelling
assignment nowadays. The photographer did a good job considering!
World News AustraliaJust how long does it take to make sure someone is secured in a tree then?
Hang-glider
pilot trapped 40 metres up a tree
Emergency service crews are working to free
a 42-year-old Hungarian man who crashed his hang-glider and spent the night
suspended from a tree in Victoria's north-east.
A police helicopter spotted the man caught
40 metres from the ground in bushland south of Benalla this morning.
Ambulance crews at the scene say he is
conscious and appears only to have a minor arm injury.
The man is one of several dozen
hang-gliders taking part in an eight day competition in the region.
Organisers raised the alarm last night
after he failed to land as expected at Milawa.
Police say they will first ensure the man
is safely secured before bringing him to the ground
USA
Need a partner? Crash your hang glider! (Blooming
expensive way to go about it. It was an ATOS!)
Think
of this as an accidental love story, with an appendectomy on the side.
If Doug hadn't
crashed his hang glider and Blanca hadn't had appendicitis, they might have
stayed co-workers at Hazel's Elegant Dining in Modesto, not life partners.
While most couples
have a lot in common, only a few can say they shared an emergency room surgeon
and joke about it.
Their story came
close to being a tragedy Nov. 25, 2002.
A hang-gliding
fanatic, Doug Prather smashed into the earth at Lake McClure after his aircraft
malfunctioned and he was able only to spiral downward making left turns.
He was taken by
helicopter to Modesto. Unconscious, he had badly damaged his spleen, torn his
liver and ripped arteries in both legs.
Blanca, who since
then has become Blanca Zermeno de Prather, was at school that fateful day when
her stomach started hurting and just kept aching. A nurse told her she needed
to go to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with appendicitis.
She had to wait
several hours before a surgeon was available, and Blanca figures it was because
the doctor was operating on Doug.
After she got out of
the hospital, Blanca returned to visit Doug.
"We became a lot
better friends," Doug said. They got married last year in Yosemite
National Park, and they honeymooned in Hawaii, where Doug even managed to hang
glide for a couple of hours.
Along with getting a
bride, Doug got a ready-made family with Blanca's three children, ages 10 to
16.
"He's so nice
with the kids," Blanca said. "They get along well."
He still owns Dream
Weavers, a hang-gliding supply company, and he is a certified flight
instructor, but Doug has cut back on his flying time.
"I feel it's
important to me to spend more time with the family after coming that close to
death," he said. "I used to fly three or four times a week; now I fly
three or four times a month."
Blanca admits that,
because of the accident, she gets a little nervous when Doug goes flying, but
she let him take two of her children hang gliding "off a small hill."
There is one
concession Doug has made. He no longer flies the kind of hang glider that
almost did him in, an Atos C wing, a small sailplane.
"I'm not flying
anything with moving parts now," he said.
David Sahl is a
longtime friend of Doug who, as president of the Mother Lode Sky Riders gliding
club, had to write up the accident report after Doug's crash.
"Doug has been
really important to our hang-gliding community," Sahl said.
He's amazed by Doug's
"life-changing event" that resulted in a new family.
Humour This month’s venue – the bedroom
What's the
definition of the bravest man in the world??
The man who comes home drunk, covered in lipstick and smelling of perfume,
then slaps his wife on the backside and says: "You're next, fatty."
*************************************
A man walks into
the bedroom with a sheep under his arm while his wife is
lying in bed reading. The man says: "This is the pig I have sex with when
you've got a headache." The wife replies: "I think you'll find that
is a
sheep." The man says: "I was talking to the sheep."
***************************************
A man walks into
his bedroom and sees his wife packing a suitcase. He asks,
"What are you doing?" She answers, "I'm moving to London. I
heard
prostitutes there get paid £400 for doing what I do for you for free."
Later
that night, on her way out, the wife walks into the bedroom and sees her
husband packing his suitcase. When she asks him where he's going, he
replies, "I'm coming too, I want to see how you live on £800 a year".
Go4IT
A clean sheet - still!
LATEST NEWS.
READ THIS AND
In order to encourage more entries into the ‘Go for it’ League it was decided that on entering (free entry) a flight for the league the pilot will automatically enter a raffle for a £50 cash prize.
Pilots will get a Raffle ticket for each entry into the League, but the maximum number of tickets to be held by any one person is to be THREE.
The Raffle will be drawn at the Christmas Meal.
Entries to Tim Crow to be in within one month of the flight.
Rules
1. UK flights only.
2. No infringement of airspace.
3. Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on
the day.
4. Flights between 01/12/04 to 30/11/05.
5. Co-ordinates for T/O and landing required plus distance
from point to point in Km as a
check. Flights will
be scored to nearest 100m.
6. Defined flights (BHPA rules, see below) Coordinates for
turn points in addition. Bonus
distance awarded
provided 60% of flight outside ridge lift.
7. Stone’s throw award for smallest flight submitted (or
known about) provided
distance 5km or greater.
Go4IT
Flight Types
Open Distance
(score = distance)
Open Distance flights do not have any
turnpoints. Open distance flights will score the straight-line distance from
the start point to the end point.
Dog-Leg (DL) score
= distance
Dog-Leg flights are open distance flights with a
single turnpoint. The turnpoint does not need to be declared beforehand. The
turnpoint is permitted when pilots are forced to make a substantial change in
direction.
Out and Return
(OR) score = distance x 2 when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
Out and Return flights commence at a start
point, go round a single turnpoint, and return to the original start point. The
coordinates of the start point and finish point are therefore identical. The
start/finish point may be different to the actual launch/landing points but the
flight distance is only measured from the start, to the turnpoint and back.
FAI Triangle (T)
score = distance x 3 when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
An FAI Triangle is one which satisfies the FAI’s
28% Rule (shortest side must be greater than, or equal to, 28% of the distance
flown). To fly a triangle you must round three turnpoints, and return to the
original start point. The coordinates of the start point and goal are therefore
identical and for declared triangles and local records, must be one of the
turnpoints. The start/goal point may be different to the actual launch/landing
points.
Special Rule to
encourage pilots to attempt triangle flights
Note that for non-declared triangles, using GPS
verification, you can fly a loop and you will be scored the best triangle which
can be fitted inside it. Your track log points must cross to complete the loop.
This means you don’t have to start and finish at a turnpoint but may start
midway along a leg. This is to encourage pilots to try triangle flights.
Flat Triangle
(FT) score = distance x 2
A Flat Triangle is a triangular flight as above,
except that it does not conform to the FAI 28% rule. Completed Flat Triangle
flights score the distance multiplied by 2 when the majority of the flight is
out of ridge lift.
Failed Triangle
(score = distance)
A Failed Triangle is an attempt at a triangular
flight in which the pilot fails to make it back to the start point. Failed
Triangles score the total distance from the start, around up to two turnpoints
and back towards the finish point.
ADVERTS
Buy
quality prints on the web! Want some high quality flying shots on your wall? Have a look at www.mooncoinphotography.co.uk
. Site is currently being sorted and
will be updated with newer stuff throughout the year so keep your eye on it.
For Sale – Alinco 2m radio,
Kenwood 2m radio, chargers and manuals, ¼ wave aerial, headset (Icom plug),
various PTT adapters (Icom), fingerless leather palmed gloves, and a Clarion
radio/cassette car stereo (boxed).
Best or only offer secures all or any of it!
Tim Crow 01452 500806
For Sale
Airwave
Magic 4 155. Excellent condition. Rarely flown over the last ten years. Spare
set of Airwave aerofoil uprights. Yellow and white. Flies very nicely. £250 Tel Rich 01684 892415 rich@mooncoin.fslife.co.uk
I appear to be missing some copies of
skywings I was wondering if anyone had the following they didn't want anymore?
Aug 79; May 81; Aug 89; Mar and Oct 91
Thanks, Frank samm@lawstroud.freeserve.co.uk
Gradient Aspen 28 DHV2
Want to fly faster than anyone else on the ridge? 211 km from just 6 UK XC's
last year. Excellent
sink. Ace wing for power (V. fast and 'turns on a sixpence'). 3 Years old.
Aerofix servicing.
Changing to the higher weight range 30 version. Very good condition. Richard.
Price £895.00 ono Email Aspen@richardpearce.co.uk
Phone Number 07798 906158
For Sale
Sup-Air Moovy PG harness medium size - red and
black Complete with removeable reserve bag and back pad. Too large for
shriveling owner!
£120 ono
Tel Brian Pilcher 01684 560827
For Sale
Keller Sport Hang Gliding Harness. £100 ono. Contact Tony Lauricella.
|
|
Gradient Demo weekend.
Sat 25th-26th
March
Aspen 2 Aspen 2 or Aspen 2….
If you are interested in
trying new wings please call…
Montenegro Holidays most of
April
Full….full….full…hoorah.
Special deals on Trango 2 dhv
2-3 for XC league pilots.
For
map and directions please go to WWW.AIRTOPIA.COM
Second hand
canopies
All canopies are serviced prior to sale, lines and sail and stitching are all checked. Prices reflect the age of design and the amount of life we believe is left in the wing. .
UP Trango 2 M ex demo
85-105kg £1,150:00
Up
trango 1 M 85-105kg £500:00
Ozone
Vulcan M 80-100kg £500:00
Gradient
Bliss L 95-120kg £750:00
Gradient
Topas L 85-110kg £300:00
mint!
Airwave Sport 1 S 65-85kg £500:00 VGC
Call Robin tel 01453 827202
Mobile 07973 844449